In hospitals, care facilities, and the like, a nurse call system that enables a patient and a nurse (a person to be cared and a caregiver in the care facilities, and the like) to talk is installed. Such a nurse call system is a system in which a nurse call device and a private branch exchange (PBX or key telephone main device) are operated in cooperation with each other, and has a configuration in which a nurse call master unit accommodates nurse call slave units allocated to respective patients (or bets) in patients rooms, nurses carry mobile terminals (personal handy-phone system (PHS) terminals, personal access system (PAS) terminals, or the like, hereinafter, referred to as PHS terminals) serving as extension terminals of the private branch exchange, and the mobile terminals are accommodated in the private branch exchange through a wireless line.
When a patient calls a nurse, the nurse call slave unit calls an extension number of the PHS terminal, and the nurse call master unit calls the PHS terminal through the private branch exchange, and the patient can talk with the nurse. Further, in an opposite way, the nurse can call the nurse call slave unit of the patient and can talk with the patient. Further, from a viewpoint of team nursing, the nurse call system is a system that can call the PHS terminals of a plurality of nurses belonging to one team so as to call the nurses in one floor who are in charge of the patient.
An example of such a nurse call system is illustrated in FIG. 6. The nurse call system includes a nurse call controller 20 that accommodates a plurality of nurse call slave units 10 (a slave unit 1, a slave unit 2, a slave unit 3, and a slave unit 4, . . . ), a private branch exchange (PBX) 40 that accommodates a plurality of PHS terminals 50 (a PHS 51-1, a PHS 51-2, a PHS 51-3, and a PHS 51-4, . . . ) through a wireless line, and a nurse call adaptor 32 lying between the nurse call controller 20 and the private branch exchange 40 and which converts an interface between them. Here, the nurse call controller 20 represents a part of functions, the function concerning communication control of a nurse call master unit that accommodates the plurality of nurse call slave units 10, and configures a part of the nurse call master unit.
Connection from the nurse call controller 20 to the private branch exchange 40 through the nurse call adaptor 32 according to this configuration will be described. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the nurse call adaptor 32 realizes the connection by connecting the nurse call controller 20 to an analog line unit 43 accommodated in the private branch exchange 40. The nurse call adaptor 32 relays two lines four speech paths (channels) included in the nurse call controller 20 to eight lines eight speech paths furnished by the analog line unit 43. That is, the nurse call adaptor 32 converts four data channels (B channels) of 2(2B+D) of ISDN basic interfaces of the nurse call controller 20 into analog lines, and connects the analog lines to the analog line unit 43 of the private branch exchange 40.
Accordingly, as illustrated in FIG. 7, a channel 1 of the nurse call controller 20 is converted into the analog line in the nurse call adaptor 32 and is accommodated in a channel 1 of the analog line unit 43 of the private branch exchange 40, and the channel 1 is connected to a channel 1 of the private branch exchange 40. Therefore, the PHS terminal 50 corresponding to an extension telephone of the private branch exchange 40 and the nurse call slave unit 10 can be connected through the channel 1.